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School district commits embarrassing PR gaffe

You may remember Dr. Lynn Beckwith, chairman of the St. Louis-area Riverview Gardens School District.

He’s the man who feared a dastardly “walking away” shot after an ambush interview had ended—and therefore refused to walk away from the reporter. You can read about that incident in my post, “Whatever You Do, Don’t Back Up!”

I came across another video of Dr. Beckwith’s strange media approach recently (I missed this clip when it originally aired in May 2011), proving that the first one wasn’t an anomaly.

I could list several things Dr. Beckwith did wrong in this interview, but one stands out above all others: He forgot who his audience was.

Beckwith appears to hold this reporter in low regard (that’s a generous understatement), but it shouldn’t matter. His conversation is supposed to be aimed at the audience—not the reporter—and it’s hard to imagine that this interview did much to increase public trust in Beckwith’s job performance.